Christmas Cards 2010

I am just beginning to think about Christmas cards for this year...ummm, I have no picture taken or photocard selected. I actually have no Christmas Card list either, thanks to my computer hard drive dying multiple times this year. My dear hubs resurrected it, but all my files are gone. Anyhowser, my sister posted this great deal from Shutterfly, and even though I am woefully unprepared in the Christmas card dept., I'm hoping this is the impetus to get me started!

Shutterfly is offering 50 free cards to bloggers who advertise their cards on their blog! I have purchased and received their folded cards, and they are sooo lovely!

Shutterfly's photocards are top notch. When I first entered the world of digital photography wayyy back in 2002, what most impressed me about Shutterfly was their selection of cute card designs. 8 years later, their cards are still top of the line in cuteness and quality.

For the 50 free cards promotion, I am supposed to link to 3 different Christmas card designs, but they are sooo cute, it's hard to pick 3! I have no idea which one I will use this year, I usually pick my card design based on what picture or pictures I have of the kids, but since I have no picture yet, I'm not sure which card I'll choose. I'm sure it will not be hard to choose one, because they are all so adorable!

I really like the fact that you can add more than one photo to the cards. With 4 children, it's hard to get them all to cooperate for one photo, so it's nice to be able to use 4 different photos to be able to capture their cuteness without pulling my hair out during a Christmas photo shoot. If the photos are all from different places, etc., they can easily be unified by turning them black and white, etc.

Here are a few of my favorites:

So cute...

And a simple, but sweet ribbon...

And a delightful monogramed card...

I've also seen their desk calendars which are a GREAT gift idea. I'm also really hoping to do a 2010 photobook this year, too. Check out Shutterfly for other great inspiration for your Christmas cards and gifts!!!

Little Train Lovers

Busy Weekend

We had our annual garage sale in my neighborhood on Friday and Saturday. It was fun and exhausting. The girls sold all sorts of goodies this year and had a great time.

Noah took a package of dental floss over to my sister during the garage sale and said, "Auntie, this is string....for your your teethes...and it tastes!"

Levi had a fever last week and must have shared with Sophia. She woke us up in the night with a fever. Levi was up for a couple hours last night too. It's not like him to be up and inconsolable in the night. I'm wondering if he has an ear infection or something. Poor kiddos. I'm rootin' for some sleep tonight...I'm tired! :)

Happy Monday!

Funnies

Noah in a loud and confident voice: Psalm 100, Makin' a joyful nose unto the Lord, all ye lands...

Noah: I want to watch "the bouncing bears" (the Berenstein Bears)

I recently remembered one of my Elijah favorites. E didn't talk much when he was little. He was a silent crawler. You didn't know he was crawling up to you until he was pulling himself up on your knee. Such a quiet little fellow he was. Anyhoo, he was, of course, a late bloomer in the speech department. When he was finished eating he couldn't say, "all done" so instead he would say, "naa naa". I just don't want to forget that.

We passed a group of kids on the sidewalk in our neighborhood, and Sophia called out, "Look! There's a girl on crunches!" (crutches)

It was hot recently and so Sophia dressed light for bed. She came in and announced that she was wearing a "tanker top" (tank top) to bed. Ah, the life with lotsa brothers. She hears a lot about tankers, and skid steers, and John Deeres.

I've been *trying* to use the summer to sharpen Sophia's math fact memorization and often Elijah gets in on the action. They enjoy showing off how much they have learned. One day Elijah proudly announced to Noah that "five plus five spells 10". Oh those poor, uneducated homeschoolers.

Speaking of poor homeschoolers. I was talking to Sophia about a test booklet that I was getting rid of. She asked, "Mom, what's a test?".

Ooops. Forgot to teach her about that one. whoopsy.

A happy day to you!

Camping Birthday

We celebrated Levi's birthday by going camping! It was so much fun!

Brand New baby boy

I don't think I ever posted any pictures of Levi, as a brand new boy. If I have, oops, but two sets of newborn baby-licious isn't all bad.

One Year Ago Today...

...our sweet little Noah left our friend's house and ran away across town to the post office. No, wait, okay, that's true, but on this day our sweet little LEVI was born!!!

Levi is my "maly anjelik", little angel. He is such a jolly little chap. He loves his siblings, especially his little Mother, Sophia. Noah has recently become enamoured with him and they like to play together. I don't remember the other kids playing together at such a young age as Noah and Levi. I think they might just be buddies......or.....partners in crime!

The L man just started pulling himself up in the last month and one of his favorite places to pull himself up is the piano. He likes to plunk on the keys. He's such a delightful little boy. He naps easily, smiles easily, eats small objects he finds on the floor, loves his crib, really really really loves his Daddy, and is happiest in the middle of a bunch of craziness. We are so blessed to have you sweet, little man! Happy Birthday Dude!

Some other stats for posterity:

Favorite word, first word, pretty much only word up until now: Dada. No matter how much I say mamama to him, he says dada back to me. It's as if he's doing it on purpose! It's so cute. He wakes up in the morning calling for Da-da-da

He's said: ly-dah for 'Lijah before.

He's said: sissss for "sissy" before.

Mercy

We have been *done* with school for all of 3 days and I report the following:

-candles crushed all over kitchen floor
-water war in the bathroom, it was 1 against no one, because the others knew better than participate.
-I know several other things happened, but I am too tired to remember.
-A headache. I have a headache. Not a headache, but a head and neck and shoulder ache.

I am a beggin' for mercy, and I know that these boys need to be wrestled with or something!

Ps. Did you know that stretching can really help upper body tension? Also, laying on the floor with your feet and legs against the wall for a bit can help your energy level too. Oops, I forgot to mention that because the sun rises early, we had a 5:30 riser for a couple of days...time to black out those windows! :)

Thank you, Lord for energetic boys. Sometimes I really don't know what to do with them and sometimes I don't know why on earth they do the things that they do, but you made each of them, and I am so thankful for your lending them to us. What laughter and excitement they add to our home! I praise your infinite wisdom in entrusting them to my care.

...off to wrestle...

180

1-8-0.

One hundred eighty.

180 days of school complete. Yipee-yahoo-yay-hooray!

Halleljuah and Praise the Lord!

We're officially done today! However, I'm a mean Mom and we are still doing Math and Reading over the summer. So, we're officially done, but we're really not done. Are you ever supposed to stop learning?

Thank you, Lord, for helping us to complete what we began at the beginning of the year. For help through the trials of the schoolday. For forgiving my failures and loving me anyway. For my 4 little blessings and the opportunity to teach them about you and about life. You know the past, present, and future and I can trust you to guide our steps as we school now and in the coming days.

Amen and Amen. :)

And now for the celebration. The kids are having cheese balls (one of their favorite junk foods). I refrained and had chips instead. I think ice cream may be in order as well!

The Easter Gentlemen

After primping and curling and fussing over Sophia AND Molly on Easter Sunday, it was refreshing to slip polos and sweaters on the boys. Aaaahhh, nothing like the low maintenance of little men!

Sophia's Easter

Sophia recently got "Molly" from American Girl. I must admit that, I think I might be having more fun with Molly than she is. Perhaps we're tied in how much fun we are having with 'lil Molly McIntyre.

Anyhoo, I bought the boys' Easter sweater vests at the end of season last year, so I wanted to find something for Soph to wear that coordinated. I couldn't find anything, so on a whim and really cheap clearanced fabric at Jo-Ann, I decided to make her a dress that matched. The dress pattern had a purse pattern. So I decided to make the matching purse. Well, Sophia loves matching so she asked for Molly to have a matching dress AND matching purse. From there they both needed matching hairbows and from there she wanted her Molly mini doll to have a matching dress, purse, and hairbow, but we didn't get that done. I don't think I could have sewn a dress that small.

I think we could write a book about this...

"If you give a Sophia a Molly she'll want a dress to match her...when you make the dress, she'll want purses to match...when she sees the purses, she'll realize she doesn't have a hairbow and will want you to make one to match. When the hairbows are done and you have succeeding in burning your fingers with the glue gun and you are both chillin' on the bed in the days before Easter she'll remind you that she has a mini doll. And chances are if she has a mini doll, she'll want a dress, purse, and hairbows to go along with her." :)

Here's my girlie with her curlers in, preparing to be pretty on Resurrection Sunday.




The two little ladies...

It was such a fun project. Sophia loved it even though she didn't sew anything. Perhaps we can sew something else for her and Molly someday and she can get in on the sewing action. That would be very exciting!

Mr. Levi

Some of the nicknames he's been tagged with so far...

Levi

Dan the Man

Levey D

The Leev-ster

Lee

Danny boy

He's almost at prime nickname age. I think it's somewhere between 12 and 18 months. We'll see what else he gets called in the next 6 months or so and what sticks.

Sophia is still Sophie or Soph or to us. Icall her Suzy and Suzy-belle sometimes too.

Elijah is 'Lije or 'Lijah (to me) and Shibby (to Graeme) Shibby is short for Eliashib which was the original nickname which morphed into Shibby. This nickname came from the man who said he didn't like having nicknames for the kiddos. Ironic, huh. :)

Noah will always be my Johnny. He reminds me so much of my brother John. I don't know what Graeme calls him. I don't think he has a nickname other than "crazy man" or "dude" or something like that. Graeme always tells me that Noah is "such a cool kid". I agree.

Nicknames are a lot of fun.

Still more Noah Funnies

I hope you're not tired of my endless recordings of Noah-isms. Here are a few more. His silly sayings are endless right now...


Mommy: Noah, put your boots on.

Noah: I want to wear my snakers instead.

*******************

"Mommy, I picked a Daddylion for you."

Coming Out of Hiding

I've been on maternity leave from blogging since this little engineer was born. :) Well, my little chap is nearly 12 months old so I think it's time I tell you about this little charmer.

Levi means "joined in harmony" and I think he was joined to our family in harmony. Albeit a loud sort of banging, noisy, rumpus-ish sort of harmony, a harmony none-the-less. He has been such a glorious addition to our rowdy household. His arrival was uneventful, his needs were minimal (what do you need after four kids and three boys in a row!) , his personality is congenial, his siblings adoring. He just joined the bunch. No fanfare, no excitement, just along with us for the wonderful, wild ride of our life.

He's a keeper.

Levi making a "Graeme face"

A Few Noah Funnies

These are for Kay because she asked when I was going to blog again. :)

Mommy: Where's Daddy?
Noah: He's up in Chile.
Mommy: What's he doing?
Noah: He's giving people donuts

Mommy: What do you want to be when you grow up?
Noah: "Daddeeee!!!!"
Mommy: Why?
Noah: Because he's eating donuts

Mommy: Does God love you, Noah?
Noah: Yes. Bob the builder likes me too.
Mommy: Really?
Noah: Yes, Bobby comes along to get attention.
Mommy: With God?
Noah: Yes, and Buddy Davis is not in my belly.
Mommy: Who is in your belly?
Noah: Umm, Bedra. (Bedra is Noah's imaginary friend who permanently resides in his belly.)

Noah: My name is Johnny and I'm here to help you!

I love putting Noah to bed. All of this in one night. :)